Boston Marathon 'caretaker' will direct new Williamsburg races

Dave Fairbank, dfairbank@dailypress.com | 247-4637

Dave McGillivray operates under three principles: Set goals, not limits; the worst injustice anyone can perform is underestimating their own ability; those who doubt things can get done shouldn't interrupt those who are doing.

McGillivray is one of those force-of-nature people who command and inspire. He is a philanthropist, organizer, motivational speaker and author. He was a national-class runner and endurance athlete who competed in Ironman triathlons and who once ran across country. Not cross country, across country – from Medford, Ore. to Medford, Mass., in 80 days, in order to raise money for cancer research.

He has been race director of the Boston Marathon for the past 22 years. His company, Dave McGillivray Sports Enterprises, stages races all over the country and is considered among the best at what they do.

It's no wonder that Walter Segaloff, the founder and CEO of An Achievable Dream, the school for at-risk youths in downtown Newport News, sought out McGillivray when he decided that he wanted to stage an annual race and fund-raiser to benefit the school and the military's Wounded Warriors program.

The result is an annual two-day race event in Williamsburg beginning in May 2011. The Run For The Dream is a half-marathon, while the Fit To Run, Fit To Dream event is an 8-kilometer run/walk whose aim is also to help battle childhood obesity.

"Dave's exciting," Segaloff said. "Talk to anybody who's (run) the Boston Marathon. You couldn't do it for (22) years if you weren't good at it. He's exciting, and he's passionate. We're passionate, too, this whole program. With the military involved, we believe in our mission, and Dave believes in our mission and his mission. So it's a great partnership."

Segaloff first called McGillivray about a year ago. The two conversed periodically for several months. McGillivray visited the area and the school, and a partnership ensued.

Last Tuesday's formal announcement of the event at the Williamsburg Lodge was attended by several dozen people, most of whom were either financially or civically involved.

Sites on the campus of William and Mary will serve as both the start and finish lines. School prez W. Taylor Reveley, who enthusiastically signed on to the project, offered three quick thoughts about the events:

1) He knows how a well-organized race can unite and excite a community, given that his family lives on Monument Avenue in Richmond, which is part of the course of that city's major road races.

2) The collaboration between William and Mary, An Achievable Dream, the Wounded Warrior program and various corporate and civic factions will help Williamsburg move forward.

3) He understands that administering such an event is far more complicated than anyone imagines, and "it's important to have the help of an all-knowing wizard." After surveying McGillivray's bio, he was convinced that "we have engaged just such a wizard."

Magic wands and spells or not, McGillivray – his name is pronounced MAC-gil-vray – was passionate and expansive Tuesday at the announcement. Here are some of his thoughts, on a variety of subjects:

On how being "vertically challenged" (his term – he stands 5-foot-4) and being the last kid picked on rec league athletic teams affected him:

"I went out for my high school basketball team and I was the last kid cut. The coach put his arm around me and said, 'If you were five inches taller, you'd be my starting guard.' I said, 'Coach, I thought it was about ability and not height.' So I challenged the center to a game of '21' in front of everybody, and I beat him. I threw the ball off the court and said, at the ripe, old age of about 14, that I would never, ever, ever allow anybody to tell me that I'm not good enough, that I don't belong.

"I went home that night and put a sign over my bed, and the sign read: Please God, Make Me Grow. But He must have been on vacation or answering someone else's prayers, because he obviously didn't make me grow. But in retrospect, I look back on my life and I think, you know something, He made me grow in other ways. He made me grow emotionally, spiritually, morally, ethically. He made me grow internally, and that's what it's all about. It's what's inside, not what's outside."

On his decision to come on board and direct the local race, after visiting the area and Segaloff's An Achievable Dream school:

"I was sold, right then and there. Even though I direct a lot of races and get asked to direct a lot more, I'm pretty picky and choosy with what I end up aligning myself with. But this had all the ingredients, all the right reasons. The cause, the venue itself. It's a home run and I want to be part of it."

On his chosen profession:

"Years ago, people asked what I did and I said (while coughing), 'Race director.' I mumbled it. (Coughing) 'Race director.' My brother's an attorney, my sister's a nurse, my other brother's a CPA, he's a race director. What the heck does a race director do? Now when people say what do you do for a living, I say, 'I help raise the level of self-esteem and self-confidence for tens of thousands of people in America.' That's what we do, and that's what this event is going to do. It's not just a road race. It's not just going down the road, cross the finish line, give them a bowl of pea soup and say, go home. It can be life changing for people, and it is, and that's what's so great about this industry right now."

On challenging himself and his company, by taking on new races:

"What I like about this event, and a few others in my portfolio, is that it's a new event and it gives us an opportunity to be creative. Whereas with something like Boston, not that it's a negative, but Boston was there before I was born and it'll be there long after I'm gone. I always consider myself more a caretaker of the Boston Marathon. I'm just taking care of it. I'm not making a whole lot of changes and I'm not adding a lot to it. With something like (the Run For The Dream), you can use your creative juices and really inject some new things into something that's brand new."

On the race course itself:

"Probably the most challenging aspect of producing an event is designing the course, because of all the constituencies you have to satisfy. From the runners themselves, in terms of what their desires and likes are. Not a lot of runners these days like mountainous courses and undulating courses. But still, you don't just want flat and fast, you want something that's a little challenging. You can't build it, you have to find it.

"Number two, is sensitivity to the community in which you conduct the event. You don't paralyze a community, you don't landlock or gridlock. You eliminate the element of surprise by community awareness programs and things of that nature. And from a race management perspective, this race doesn't start and finish in the exact, same spot, but it's within walking distance. That makes it easier, so you don't have to inconvenience yourself from a management perspective, or the runners, from having to transport them and their baggage.

"So there's a lot of ingredients that go into it, just the (course) design. Then you look at the aesthetic part of it, the historical part. There's beauty there, there's urban, there's history. It doesn't get any better than that.

"It more than meets my specs. You only can work with what you have, and that's why it's refreshing to come to a location like this, because what you have doesn't get any better, whereas some places I'm asked to go, the client just wants to put on a race. You go look for the course and you're beating yourself over the head saying, 'No, no, no, this isn't going to work.' Whatever the reason. But here, the course was sort of handed to us on a silver platter.

"All that said, that doesn't mean there isn't a lot of work that goes into it. It took us a year to come up with this course. It takes time to tweak it, to work it, to grind through all the nuances. Whether it's construction over here, or a sponsor over there, or convenience to the runners. You might start with the finish and work your way back, or you might start with the start(ing line) and work your way forward, or you might start with the start and finish and work your way through the middle. Without a doubt, once the gun goes off, the most important thing to the runners is the course they're on."